DISCLAIMER:This story includes tons of graphical language, excessive violence and a tiny bit erotic stuff too. All of this is purely fictional to make the characters act more realistic in both their attitude and behavior, nothing of it is intended to harm real life people and I asked for approval from the Admins/Moderators of this forum before I submitted this. If you're scared of blood and gore or feel very offended by cussing you should NOT read the story.

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DAY 2

I got up at 6 in the morning with some terrible headache, my wounds have been hurting and some really great song called 'Who the f*** is Alice' by Smokie was playing on the radio. It made me feel soooo much better, oh well, I have never experienced my own mood dropping that quick in my entire life. Richie was already up standing in that little corner of his he called 'kitchen', mixing some kind of medicine.

"You couldn't sleep well this night, could you? Well, me too." he said.

The bird's voice croaking out off the bathroom interrupted us and then he appeared. He had to pee and used the toilet. I don’t even ant to imagine how that looks. Crazy guy.

"Hey birdy, I know you’re pretty tall for a bird but still don’t fall into that hole when you poop the shit out off Richie’s house."

„Name’s Agir and it's annoying that you always call me 'birdy‘. I'm not just any bird. I'm a Miscrit."

„You still didn't explain that word to me. I've never heard of it before."

Richie brought the medicine and rice, then he sat down next to me.

"Alice, listen carefully now. This place, called Miscria, is a colorful oasis inside the desert of Australia. We believe that it was created by a goddess, Mother Genesis, referencing to documents our ancestors left behind. In this area, and ONLY in this area, you can meet the so called "Miscrits", a sort of mostly animal like creatures, but they're different from animals due to several reasons. All Miscrits claim a certain territory and defend it by attacking the ones who cross it and look hostile or not familiar to them. They use physical or special elemental attacks for that, every Miscrit knows its own moves which are transmitted from generation to generation. Most Msicrits do not immediately attack you though. They’re watchful creatures and usually try to get a picture of yours first before they judge you. When Genesis created this place, she split up the Miscrits in 6 different categories, the so called 'elements' and gave different magical energy to them. She divided the elements into two elemental cycles, the primary and the secondary cycle. The primary cycle involves Fire, Water and Nature, the secondary one Wind, Lightning and Earth. There are a few Dual Miscrits as well, their element is made of one element of the primary and one of the secondary cycle. The cycle are constructed in a way that all Miscrits are equal, means every Miscrit is strong against another one but also weak against different one and also neutral to some. Most of them are pretty logic - Water beats Fire, Fire beats Nature and Nature beats Water, same as Earth beats Lightning, Lightning beats Wind and Wind beats Earth. The Dual Miscrits got 2 weakness, but also have 2 strengths depending on their types. But that's not everything...."

"Hold on for a second...Created by a GOD?"

"Yes, but it's just a rumor. Allegedly that god has been seen by some villagers hundreds of years ago, and from their diaries we could abstract its appearance as insect or spider-like with a humanoid female voice so we relate her as a female superiority. Moreover, if she 'appeared' she only did it at night and no one could see more than her simple silhouette. She has been called Genesis for an eternity, the first entries about her had been discovered over 500 years ago, just by the fact of aging it's impossible that she’s a human being. She must be something supernatural but unfortunately we don't have any helpful information about her other than those mysterious appearances of hers. She can't be a Miscrit either as none of them would be able to live for 500 years. The oldest one recorded was a Warro, a turtle Miscrit, which lived for 374 years. Sorry, I'm digressing. One thing for sure, Genesis isn't malicious, at least she never took any action of that kind. If she had been our enemy we would be all dead for ages. Probably she is just watching us…in case she really exists. I kinda started to doubt though as our last entry of hers is more than 150 years ago."

"I start to understand now. You have more to say? Go on, please, I thought this is a simple boring place, but it's getting quite interesting."

"There is a lot more indeed. You probably still think that Miscrits are quite similar to animals but there is one key thing which makes them really different. When a Miscrit reaches a certain strength, experience or something special happens, it can happen that it evolves. All Miscrits got 4 evolutions, we call the kid stage 1st evolution, most reach the youth stage, the 2nd or the adult stage, the 3rd one. Not many evolve to the 4th in the wild, but I have the feeling that the bond of friendship between a human and a Miscrit has a lot of impact in that. Our ancestors had many Miscrits by their side which were able to reach their final stage."

"That slug thing was a Miscrit as well, wasn't it?"

"Yes. We call them the Nanaslug tribe. The one you have seen must have been a grown 3rd or maybe even last evolution as you said it was huge. The bird you got is a Freedom. Both are Dual Miscrits, Nanaslug is a Water/Wind Miscrit and Freedom a Fire/Wind Miscrit. Both those species played a big role for the background story of our village. Let us go to the museum, I will show you what I mean."

"Can I go with you?" Agir shouted into the room." I mean if you're talking about my ancestors...I have the right to find out more about them! And then you bring me back home, please, I cannot fly! My fam's next is about 15 miles away from here along the road on a hill near Mount Gemma.

"Mount Gemma?" I asked.

"That's how this mountain is called. Later we can climb up the hill on the northside, then I will show you the protector of our home."

Okay, short inner recap… 'Protector of their home'? I hope it doesn't look as scary as that Nanaslug thingy. The story really gave me the rest. I'm here at some place at god's ass, pardon, inside of it….and I'm surrounded by monsters, ridiculous rumors about mysterious insect gods and I'm captured like a bird in a cage, a village which is dilapidated so badly.

I put Agir in my arms so he could see better and we entered the museum. It turned out to be the building which looks like the greek temple (makes sense). Inside it is pretty amazing, like a castle. Grey huge brick walls surrounding you and you always receive an echo as youu speak, quite impressive. There are plenty of Miscrit skeletons, plastic rebuilds, stuffed ones and lots of information boards with graphics exhibited. Richie stopped in front of a really huge stuffed bird who looks similar to Agir, just that this one was much taller, like 2 meters in total not even counting in its wingspan. It looked much more mature as well with a striking yellow star on its face and it had multiple tails which are sooted as they were burning back in its life time. Obviously it belongs to Agir's Miscrit tribe, so I asked Richie and pointed at it. Agir didn't say anything, he was somewhat frozen by the mighty appearance of his obvious ancestor.

"This one belongs to Freedom, right?"

"Yes, that's a Liberty, one of the evolutions of Freedom. Freedom is an extremely rare Miscrit, we almost have no information about it so I’m happy you got this little buddy here in your arms. This Freedom had the name Ace, if we're not naming them by their nickname we tend to call them as their first evolution. This one here belonged to my grandfaher. He has found him as a starved baby Freedom which had been outcasted by its parents. My grandpa at that point was 7 years old. Together they've grown up and became a real dream team, but then the Nanaslugs appeared at the sky one day and attacked our village. Ace was always able to put them down by himself until their number started to grow drastically, so he grew stronger until my grandpa could ride him. They fought together since then".

"What... he did ride on it? Really? Wow...."

Agir became really quiet. He was tending to make bird-like sounds and slightly moved around in my arms to reposition himself, but now he stopped moving entirely. He just kept watching at Ace and looked quite satisfied. After a minute or so he suddenly turned around and spoke to me.

"Alice, I go out for a second if that's ok."

"Move on birdy. But don't dare to get lost."

And Agir jumped off my arms and went out off the museum, pointing one of his large feathers in the air into my direction. Well, I guess I can translate that as a middle finger, he is just like me, haha. He will probably grow as big as Ace one day which is quite hard to imagine but I would really appreciate it if he becomes more....an adult. Well, I'm still an inner kid myself so I'm not counting on it too hard.

"Can we go on, Richie?"

"Of course. Indeed, my grandpa was a tough man and so was Ace, but then the day came at which it happened. It was a day of a solar eclipse around 17 years ago. I have been a small child at this time. Usually we always had to deal with 3 to 5 Nanaslugs per attack...but at this day..more than 200 came. They simply were too many to get proper counted and too many for Ace to handle. Over 90% of our population have been killed at this day, including Ace, he was bitten by one and didn't get the antidote fast enough to cure him. The Nanaslug Poison is deadly and our antidote ran out faster than we could brew more. I lost my whole family, just my grandpa and me survived."

We continued walking until we have been in front of the skeleton of a huge Nanaslug.

"They surrounded our village and we had to hope that we survive a few nights until we got better defense up. Unfortunately our houses aren't made for that and so they broke through our own doors, picking the humans out off their own houses like a cat does with a mouse hiding in its hole. My grandpa has been killed by a Nanaslug's bite a night after Ace died because we were out of protection and antidote. Only people who had proper hiding made it. All the smells of corpses and blood made it harder for the Nanaslugs to track the remaining living so they finally left after the third night. We don't want anything like this to happen again, that's why we installed the outposts now and we rebuilt the houses using sturdier material. What you see here is the skeleton of a Tornadouse, the last evolution of Nanaslug."

"I guess I encountered this one."

I believe that too. The 3rd stage Slimist usually are grouped up and train their skills using each other as test opponent. It's abnormal to see them alone. I'm very sure you've met a Tornadouse as they also roam alone and patrol. We will check its carcass later und take some gastric substance from it to develop more antidote, moreover we need some skin samples to do a research and find out what kind of weapons we need to injure them, grenades are currently the best option. It seems like they got a weakness regarding explosives. I always got 3 grenades and a taser on my belt when I go out. You should do that as well. I have some reserves, I'll give it to you when we get back home.

"Yes, I don't want to get bitten by these monsters."

"If you find out anything about your Freedom or the Nanaslugs please let me know. We need all information you gather. Remember one thing always, day and night, every hour: This piece of land belongs to the Miscrits, not to us. We are just guests here and the Miscrits share their land with us. Only kill a Miscrit if you're sure that it's the best for it or its environment. We usually try to avoid to kill Miscrits as they're not aggressive to us and if so it's only because we're crossing their territory or try to take their food source.

"What means..usually?"

"Once a week, on every Thursday, the leader of the Nanaslugs, we call him the Alpha Nanaslug or Nana Banana as he as a banana shaped scar on his forehead, and some other mighty Nanaslugs who are high-ranked in their society return to our village. They demand that we hand one of our Miscrits over to them, as a tribute, it must be alive. They slaughter that Miscrit in front of our eyes, it's awful. But if we don't do it they will attack us again and kill even more people.

"WHAT???? YOU'RE LYING."

"I'm not. You will see it yourself tomorrow. "

Quick break and small recap. You're just a book, so you can't feel what I feel. I feel too scared to describe it in words. Well, I'm quite sure about one thing: That Rich guy is definitely in the wrong garret. This land belongs to the Miscrits? Pah! They're just animals enhanced with some ugly magic. I don't know how they got that magical powers but who cares…. Richie treats them like gods. He isn't normal. This village isn't. If these Miscrits are so wonderful and mighty, why doesn't he kill some to absorb their power and kill those shitty Nanaslugs…rip them into pieces and there will be peace again. He said they may kill Miscrits if its good for their environment. Getting rid of the Nanaslugs solves the problem, happy ending. It seems to be possible, so why don't they just try it?…I want to know HOW powerful those creatures are. Probably I find a way to handle the Nanaslugs on my own. They will fear me, I'm sure, and I'm also sure that I can finally get home after that as this part of the world seems pretty fucked up to me.

"Excuse me Richie, how strong can Miscrits become?"

"Stronger than you think. They can move mountains. In the hands of a wrong man they can be truly destructive."

"Why don't you use their power?"

"We are using their power. They attack the Nanaslugs and defend us. Without them the Nanaslugs would destroy everything. In return we give them food and shelter. It's hard to find food these days and many places got destroyed in the battles and we don't want to rob the wild Miscrits as that would hurt the economy of this land. So many Miscrits lost their home already…"

"No...I rather mean aren't you able to extract their power? What happens if Miscrits die...you told me they were created by a God and magical energy was given to them..where does that energy go to after they passed away?"

"It returns to Mother Nature where it actually belongs to. You can say Miscrits are the living form of Mother Nature."

"Can't you extract that energy somehow so we can use it to fight the Nanaslugs? Is that possible?"

Abruptly Richie slapped me hard. He became so angry all of the sudden and I don't know why. I just want to help.

"NEVER THINK ABOUT THAT ALICE!!! NEVER!!!!!!! YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT'S THE OUTCOME IF YOU TRY TO CONTROL THE MISCRITS ' POWERS!!!"

"What the heck...calm down, okay? That hurt man! How do you want to know if you never tried it??? Your reaction says that it is possible, isn't it???"

"It's true, I didn't try. Someone else did and the result was HORRIBLE!!!"

"Tell me about that person, please! We can do it better than him! Oh man, Richie it is our the chance to defeat the Nanaslugs! Why don't you realize that?".

"Forget it."

"What's so wrong with it? I mean the Nanaslugs kill your beloved Miscrits in front of your eyes ....if they die this or that way, it doesn't matter, does it? You said yourself you would sacrifice them for the wealth of their surrounding. It is your main goal to get the Nanas away, SO WHY DO YOU JUST SIT HERE AND WATCH??? EXPLAIN IT TO ME!!!

"SHUT UP!!!!"

"Why? I mean it...- "

"WHY THE HELL CAN'T YOU JUST SHUT YOUR DAMN MOUTH, GIRL!!!

He grabbed his taser and....guess what happened. I woke up at Richie's house and Richie was bandaging my left arm. Yeah, I fainted and had 2 hours of beauty sleep. Even the toughest girl on earth sometimes falls for her weaknesses.

"I'm sorry for that. Never talk about that topic again. Please, I beg you. We won't do it, hope that's clear now. Let me show you the farm. Then you will get to know why everything we are doing is right."

"It's okay."

Well, he doesn't want to tell me so I have to find it out by myself. I have nothing better to do anyways. So, what's on the list. 1) The Farm. 2) That protector Richie was talking of. 3) Convincing Richie to tell me about the guy who abused Miscrit power. 4) Bringing Agir home. 5) Finding out what Genesis is if she exists at all and if I'm still stuck in here after I finished all this.

We went to the farm, they're having tons of different Miscrits there. Rich guided me through the building until we stopped in a stable in front of an Unicorn. It was marked by significant wound on it's front left knee, it hobbled and could barely stand. Richie had a sad look on his face and before I could ask him what's wrong with him he started talking.

"This is a Duocornius, the 3rd evolution of the Equestrion Miscrit tribe. You see it is wounded and it's in great pain. It is the Miscrit which will be sacrificed tomorrow.

"Did you ever try to negotiate with the Nanaslugs".

"Yes. It is futile. Their hunger for flesh makes them loose their minds. We stopped trying because they threatened us that they gonna attack if you don't accept their conditions. We try to sacrifice Miscrits whose life expectancy is very low or who suffer from their current condition. They don't only die for our village, we kinda try to give them the favor of dying for a good purpose, also because some of them doesn't even want to live for any longer. If we are out off those, the decision is really hard. The villagers decide together who will be sacrificed. If it hits Miscrits who live with families, it is extremely frustrating. But those Miscrits are the ones offered first after the ill ones because they have no purpose other than being a pet. All Miscrits on the farm are working on the fields or provide us with food. I could never imagine to loose my own Miscrit."

I almost forgot but now I can remember that dog stench when I entered Richie's house for the first time.

"Oh you have one? I haven't seen it so far.

"It's a Billava, the 2nd evolution of the Quackers tribe. I shortly call him Bill. In summer he is spending most time with his mother, A Duckrust, last evolution of the Quackers tribe. She is the protector of our village and lives in a cave which you can reach by climbing up the eastern rocks and follow the path uphill. 5 years ago in a night of a crucial thunderstorm, she came down the mountain and was critically wounded, obviously by the Nanaslugs as she was partly covered with Slime. I found her while I was on patrol. She had a male Duckrust partly laying on her back and it seemed like she carried him as he was too weak. He was dead sadly and she was stuck under him and screaming in pain. Then I recognized she was pregnant and about to give birth so I became an unwanted midwife. This is how Bill got born. I guided her and her baby to the cave which I used as treatment room to cure her. It kinda automatically turned into her new home. She was very thankful for saving her child but pleased me to take care of it as it would be safer for it to grow up in the village. I'm kinda having a deal with her now. I provide her food and take care of Bill most of the time, she protects our village from the Nanaslugs who think they must break our contract with them. Her skin is thick and a small dosis of poison can be fought off by her own immune system. It's getting late, so I decided to show her to you tomorrow."

"Alright."

I had nothing to say. Looks like Rich is a person who experienced a lot of things already and I was shocked how many sad things were going on and are still going on at this place. I wondered where Agir went to. I think he just tried to escape the situation and hide his true feelings. I started liking him a bit to be honest. He reminds me a lot of myself, always crushing the wall with the head. Tomorrow will be a scary day. I don't know how I will react when this sacrifice happens. I don't want it to happen, but it's for the greater good I guess and it will buy us some time. I just hope I can hold back myself. Peace.